As the parent of a 3.5 year old and an almost 8 year old, I am now mostly on the other side of sleepless nights and shower-less days. I can remember those days of survival well…and I know that my personal care and beauty routine suffered quite a bit for 2 or 3 of those years! And while I certainly lowered my standards and went with it during those days, one thing that I was sure to keep up with was bleaching my teeth (not while pregnant or nursing). To me, one of the best accessories a person can have is a pretty smile, and that includes white teeth.

I first tried teeth whitening when I was in college. I had one upper tray made at my dentist office because I was a poor college student at the time and couldn’t afford two trays. For several years this wasn’t an issue. As I have gotten older and consumed gallons of coffee, my teeth have gotten more yellow. I wanted to start bleaching my bottom teeth too, so I started using strips. Whitening strips have come a long way and I have had good success with them, but they don’t extend past the front 6 or 8 teeth and I could still see yellow on my back teeth – not to mention by this time my lower teeth were at least 3 shades darker than the top due to my earlier bleaching routine.

Fast forward to 2013 and I learned about these at home Teeth Whitening Trays from Smile Brilliant. For as little as $89.95 I could have 2 custom teeth whitening trays made!

First I ordered a custom Teeth Whitening Tray Package from Smile Brilliant here. (there are options for normal or sensitive teeth).

Once I received my kit (it arrived in less than 3 business days), I followed the easy step-by-step instructions to create my upper and lower teeth impressions. I honestly thought this process would be more difficult than what it was – I believe it took me less than 10 minutes total!

When my impressions were complete, I let them sit overnight before packing them in the pre-paid envelope and mailing them back to Smile Brilliant.

About a week later my new, custom teeth whitening trays arrived in the mail, and I was anxious to get started!

I have found my custom fit trays to be extremely comparable to the trays that my husband has from our dentist. They are comfortable to wear and fit my teeth great. In terms of the bleach, I found the de-sensitizing gel (included in the package) to be helpful for the first 2 treatments. After that I was able to go without.

I ended up using the teeth whitening trays and gel from Smile Brilliant 4 times before taking my “after” picture seen below. You will notice that my upper teeth weren’t that yellow to begin with – but my bottom ones were! I wish that I would have thought to pull down my lip to show those to you more. The lighting is a bit different in my pictures too unfortunately. This wasn’t intentional…it was just how things went down. Hopefully you can still see a change.

I definitely noticed a difference after 4 treatments and plan to use my Smile Brilliant Teeth Whitening system to maintain the whiteness of my teeth. I am actually going to try using the bottom tray alone for 2-3 treatments to see if I can get my upper and lower teeth to be the same color – after 15+ years of them being uneven in color!

My best tips for you are to use the de-sensitizing gel if you think you’ll need it, and to go easy on the amount of bleach that you put in your trays for the first 1-2 applications. If you overfill the trays you will be gagging on the bleach and that’s no fun!

Even though I am not new to teeth whitening, I learned that teeth whitening does not change the natural color of your teeth – it simply removes (bleaches away) all of the stains!

Like with most products, teeth whitening is not for everyone.

Who is not a candidate for teeth whitening?

Pregnant or Nursing Women

Children under 13 years of age who have not consulted with a dentist

Those with untreated cavities, worn/damaged enamel, exposed roots or defective dental work

4) Subscribe to my feed or email newsletter and stay on top of all of the deals that I write about each week! If you already subscribe, please leave a separate comment letting me know that you are currently a subscriber (thank you!).

Who is eligible?

You must have a valid US address to be eligible

When does this giveaway end?

Friday, December 13, 2013 at 5PM EST

The winner will be chosen via the random number generator at random.org and will be notified via email. Please note that if I do not hear from the winner within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.

Good Luck!

Disclaimer:This post was sponsored by Smile Brilliant. This post was written by me and was not edited by the sponsor. Read more in my disclosure policy.

I haven’t bleached in ages! ( I used the crest white strips before & didn’t like the burning sensation)
But I’ve seen some old pictures recently & I can’t believe how dull my teeth look.
Would love to give this a try